The prior art includes numerous systems for storing and handling different kinds of objects that include both the storage structure and the machine or machines for handling said objects, such systems usually being organized in an integrated way, that is to say such that the machines are designed expressly to interact with a given structure.
These systems are highly efficient, but at the same time the costs of their installation are often out of the reach of small or medium-sized enterprises operating for example in the field of sheet metal working. The reason for this is that these installations are generally of large dimensions and difficult to adapt to confined productive areas. In particular, the machines used in these storage systems are usually conveyor/elevator systems comprising a portal that translates a forklift or suchlike system having lifting means of varying design. In these machines it is usually difficult to reconcile precision control of the lifting means with a low cost for the equipment used.
In addition to this, the forks that are used in such machines are often of telescopic type, so as to permit improved accessibility to the storage structure; but forks of this type have the disadvantage that they cannot carry very heavy loads, and besides this they are complex and therefore expensive to build.
With these kinds of machine there is common and extensive use, in the management of industrial and/or commercial stores, of so-called pallets for the transport and storage of goods. Pallets are basically rectangular loading boards, normally made of wooden planking with two or more stiffening crossmembers arranged at right angles to the axes of the said planking. The pallets in question are highly versatile, but disadvantages arise when used with certain particular materials.
In particular, for transporting and storing thin, flat objects of relatively large size and of a thickness such as not to make the stack of objects to be transported self-supporting, such as metal sheets, the use of a pallet of known type is unsatisfactory.
In the first place, the total depth of the pallet plus its load raises problems for ergonomic management of the store; in the second place, the stack of metal sheets is unstable on the pallet, and is positioned on it at random, which makes repositioning necessary when the said stack of sheet metal is intended to be used for automatic processing.